1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to electronic design automation (EDA), and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for simulating semiconductor integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a variety of principal standard techniques for optimizing circuit design and chip layout which provide the best results while meeting fixed costs among other design conditions. These techniques include varying the chip size, power consumption of the chip, and the operating speeds of various functions executed in the chip. Optimization of circuit design and chip layout is performed using various analyses for estimating the relative importance of various design standards using workstations or other computer systems running design programs.
The most important design standards to meet are functional and timing requirements of integrated circuits. However, a simulation of a full-chip circuit to inspect the timing of a memory integrated circuit may require several hours. Thus, it is impossible to simulate the full-chip circuit in real time under various conditions such as process variations, operating voltage variations, and temperature variations. Accordingly, the memory circuit is simulated using limited sets of conditions.